Chemical Engineering Journal 203 (2012) 9–18

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Chemical Engineering Journal

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Modified oil palm leaves adsorbent with enhanced hydrophobicity for crude
oil removal
S.M. Sidik a, A.A. Jalil b,⇑, S. Triwahyono a, S.H. Adam b, M.A.H. Satar b, B.H. Hameed c
a
Ibnu Sina Institute for Fundamental Science Studies, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
b
Institute of Hydrogen Economy, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
c
School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

" A new low-cost biodegradable oil

adsorbent was developed from oil
palm leaves (OPLs).
" Lauric acid enhanced the
hydrophobicity and adsorption
ability of OPL.
" The adsorption was controlled by
film-diffusion mechanism.
" Maximum adsorption capacity was
1176 ± 12.92 mg g1 at optimized
conditions.
" The OPLLA has the potential of
removing crude oil from oily water
mixture.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The removal of crude oil from water by lauric acid (LA) modified oil palm leaves (OPLsLA) was investigated
Received 22 April 2012 by batch adsorption after varying pH (2–11), contact time (10–60 min), adsorbent dosage (0–52 g L1),
Received in revised form 28 June 2012 initial oil concentration (0–6400 mg L1) and temperature (303–323 K). The modification significantly
Accepted 28 June 2012
increased the hydrophobicity of the adsorbent, thus creating OPLLA with much better adsorption capacity
Available online 6 July 2012
for crude oil removal. The results gave the maximum adsorption capacity of 1176 ± 12.92 mg g1 at
303 K. The significant uptake of crude oil from water was proven by FT-IR and FE-SEM analyses. The iso-
Keywords:
therms studies revealed that the experimental data agrees with the Freundlich isotherm model. The
Low-cost adsorbent
Oil spill
pseudo-second-order kinetics model fitted well the experimental results. Boyd’s and Reichenberg’s equa-
Hydrophobicity tion on adsorption dynamic revealed that the adsorption was controlled by internal transport mechanism
Kinetics and film-diffusion was the major mode of adsorption. The prepared adsorbent showed the potential to
Isotherms use as a low-cost adsorbent in oil-spill clean-up.
Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction amount of petroleum energy source [2]. Therefore, it is essential

Massive oil spills have occurred frequently as a result of human
mistakes and carelessness, deliberate acts (i.e. war and vandalism)
and natural disasters (i.e. earthquakes and hurricanes) [1]. These
incidents resulted in a great deal of damage to the human health
quality, serious environmental pollution and loss in the huge
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 7 5535581; fax: +60 7 5536165.
E-mail address: aishah@cheme.utm.my (A.A. Jalil).
to collect and clean the oil promptly after a spillage.
Advanced removal and recovery of oil by oil sorbent materials is
of great interest from economical and ecological standpoints and
therefore, various materials have been applied to this end [3].
These studies almost exclusively use either inorganic mineral
materials, organic synthetic product or organic natural materials
as the adsorbent [4]. Recently, the use of various types of natural
organic adsorbents [2,5–11] is particularly interesting because of
their greater adsorption capacities, higher biodegradability and

1385-8947/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2012.06.132
10 S.M. Sidik et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 203 (2012) 9–18
cost effectiveness compared to the inorganic and synthetic organic
adsorbents that are normally used. However, abundant and locally
available adsorbents with a good oil-sorption capacity are still in
need.
The local oil-palm industry is estimated to generate 30 million
tons of a lignocellulosic biomass per year in the form of trunks,
fronds, empty fruit bunches and leaves [12]. These wastes are
not being utilized effectively; land filling and open burning are
common practices to eliminate these oil-palm residues, and these
methods can cause pollution that adversely impacts the ecosystem
[13]. Therefore, finding uses for these abundant biomasses, espe-
cially on a large scale, would be profitable from both an environ-
mental and an economic point of views.
Therefore, herein we chose oil-palm leaves (OPLs) as a model
adsorbent and studied their potential for removing crude oil from
water. OPL was reported to consist of 47.7% holocellulose, 44.53%
a-cellulose and 27.35% lignin [14]. Due to the availability of the spe-
cific functional groups such as hydroxyl (AOH) groups in the OPL,
the surface characteristics of the OPL can be modified to improve
its adsorption properties. Several studies have been conducted for
the surface modifications of agricultural waste/byproduct [15,16],
but the use of less expensive fatty acids as the modification agent
is still rare.
In the present study, the influence of surface modification on
adsorption performance were evaluated for the removal of crude
oil under various experimental conditions of pH, adsorbent dosage,
contact time, initial oil concentration and temperature. A few at-
tempts have been made in studying the engineering aspects of
the adsorption mechanism such as kinetics, equilibrium and ther-
modynamics of the adsorption of crude oil onto OPLLA.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Materials
The mature OPL were collected from the Johor oil-palm planta-
tion, Malaysia. The crude oil was obtained from petroleum plant
station, Kerteh, Malaysia and used as received. The oily-water mix-
ture was prepared at the desired concentration using Milli-Q
water.
2.2. Preparation of adsorbent
The green-colored OPL were cut into small pieces to obtain suit-
ably sized OPL for blending. The pieces were washed with water to
remove any adhering substances and were then oven-dried at
353 K. The pieces were then ground and sieved to a constant size
of 355–500 lm and oven-dried at 373 K for 24 h to a constant
weight before being stored in a plastic bottle. The uniformity of
OPL particles in this size range led to a well-mix during the
adsorption.
Treated OPL was prepared by suspending 2 g of powdered OPL
in 200 mL of 1.0 M lauric acid solution. The mixture was stirred
for 6 h at room temperature and then filtered. The resultant adsor-
bent sample was washed with n-hexane several times before being
oven-dried overnight at 353 K. Weight percent gain (WPG) of the
OPL due to the modification with lauric acid was calculated accord-
ing to:
 
Weight gain
WPGð%Þ ¼  100
Original weight
The hydrophobicity degree (HD) of the OPL and OPLLA were
defined as the tendency of the materials to be removed from the
water phase into a non-polar phase. In this experiment, 1.0 g of
adsorbent was placed in a beaker with 20 mL of water and with
sufficient agitation. Following this, hexane with the same volume
of water was added to the beaker and agitated for 3 min. The mix-
ture was then let to stand for 5 min for the separation of the two
immiscible phases. The quantity of the adsorbent transferred to
the organic phase was determined by filtration and subsequent
drying and weighing. The results are expressed in term of the per-
cent of adsorbent transferred into the organic phase. The values of
the percent proportion used as the estimations of the degree of
hydrophobicity of the adsorbent were calculated based on the fol-
lowing equation:
 
Weight of adsorbent in hexane
HDð%Þ ¼  100 ð2Þ
Original weight
2.3. Characterization of crude oil and OPL
The hydrocarbon content in the crude oil before and after 7 days
of exposure under sunlight was analyzed using a gas chromato-
graph equipped with a mass spectrometer detector (GC–MS, Hew-
lett Packard HP 5890A-Series II, USA). The infrared spectra of the
OPL sample were obtained using a Fourier-transform infrared spec-
trometer (FT-IR, Spectrum GX, Perkin Elmer, USA). The samples
were prepared as KBr pellets and scanned over the range of 400–
4000 cm1 to identify the functional groups that were responsible
for adsorption. The surface morphology of the OPL before and after
adsorption was examined using a field-emission scanning electron
microscope (FE-SEM, JEOL JSM 6710F). The surface area of the
adsorbents was measured using surface analyzer (Quantachrome
Autosorb-1 analyzer) by BET method.
2.4. Adsorption experiments
Adsorption experiments were performed by adding 1 g of OPL
in a 50 mL conical flask containing 25 mL of a 2400 mg L1 oil mix-
ture. The pH of the working mixtures was adjusted to the desired
value with 0.1 M HCl or NaOH. The mixtures were prepared under
constant stirring at a rate of 300 rpm at room temperature (303 K)
to reach equilibrium. The samples were then withdrawn at appro-
priate time intervals and centrifuged at 3500 rpm for 15 min. The
supernatant was filtered using a Millex-HN filter (Millipore,
0.45 lm), and the oil left at the top of the mixture was extracted
using n-hexane. The residual oil concentration was determined
using a double-beam UV/vis spectrophotometer (Thermo Scientific
Genesys 10UV Scanning) at 280 nm. All experiments were per-
formed in triplicate. Statistical analysis was carried out by compar-
ing means of each crude oil removals using one-way analysis of
variance.
At any time, t, the adsorption uptake of oil adsorbed (qt, mg/g)
on OPL was calculated by the following mass-balance equation:
 
C0  Ct
Adsorption uptake; qt ¼ V ð3Þ
m
where Co and Ct (mg/L) are the liquid-phase concentrations of the
oil at the initial and at time t, respectively, V (L) is the volume of
the mixture and m (g) is the mass of OPL used.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Characterizations of the adsorbent
ð1Þ
3.1.1. Functional groups identification
The determination of the chemical structure of OPL before and
after pretreatment, as well as before and after adsorption, could
verify the possible functional groups involved in its binding mech-
anism between lauric acid and oil. Fig. 1 shows the FTIR spectra of
 S.M. Sidik et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 203 (2012) 9–18 11

Fig. 1. FTIR spectra of OPLuntreated, OPLLA and OPLLA after oil adsorption.

Fig. 2. FE-SEM images of (a) OPLuntreated, (b) OPLLA and (c) OPLLA after oil adsorption. (Magnification: 250).

OPLuntreated, OPLLA and OPLLA after oil adsorption. A strong band at
3400 cm1 is attributed to the intra- and inter-molecular hydro-
gen-bonded (OAH) stretching that occurs in cellulose. Two peaks
observed between 2970 and 2855 cm1 were assigned to the pres-
ence of CAH asymmetric stretching of CH3 and CH2 groups [17].
The presence of a peak observed at 1750 cm1 is attributed to
the C@O stretching of the carbonyl group [18]. The vibration of
C@C stretching mode was observed at 1632 cm1, may be attrib-
uted from aromatics of both OPL and the crude oil. The band at
1400 cm1 may represent the CAH bending vibration mode [19].
The broad peaks at approximately 1103 and 1060 cm1 show the
CAOAC stretching vibration of lignin and the CAO stretching of
cellulose and hemicellulose, respectively [20].
The increase in the peak intensity of CH3 and CH2 groups after
the treatment of OPL with lauric acid has suggested the successful
impregnation of lauric acid into the OPL. This hypothesis was con-
firmed with the presence of a new peak at 1750 cm1, correspond-
ing to the carbonyl group originated from the lauric acid chain. This
result is in good agreement with the improvement of the hydropho-
bicity degree of the OPL from 16.3% to 84.7% after the treatment. In
addition, it was supported with the increment in the weight of OPL
after the treatment with WPG is about 4.62%. It is suggested; the
increased in the hydrophobicity of OPL after modification with LA
will increase the affinity of OPLLA to absorb more crude oil.
The attachment of crude oil onto the surface of OPLLA was
observed at 2970 and 2855 cm1; where the peaks become more
intensified after the adsorption process. A well-pronounced trough
at 1632 cm1 which is associated with the presence of C@C
stretching of aromatics of the crude oil was increased significantly
after the crude oil adsorption. The adsorption of crude oil was fur-
ther evidenced by the presence of a new peak at 1400 cm1 after
the adsorption which represents the CAH bending of crude oil.
The CAH deformation band at 593 cm1 decreased in intensity
after the adsorption, possibly because of the interaction of the lau-
ric acid chain with the petroleum hydrocarbons.
3.1.2. Morphology identification
The FE-SEM images of OPL before and after the pretreatment
with lauric acid and also after oil sorption were showed in Fig. 2.
The smoother surface of OPL became corroded and coarse with a
highly porous texture after the pretreatment, suggesting the re-
moval of waxy cuticle layer of the OPL during the modification,
thus increased contact area for the adsorption of oil. Following
crude oil adsorption, the pores of OPLLA were filled and adhered
with oil, which covered the surface of the OPLLA with a series of
irregular oil cavities. The irregular surfaces implied the adsorption
of crude oil onto the OPLLA.
12 S.M. Sidik et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 203 (2012) 9–18

8 2.5
(a) OPLuntreated
OPL untr eated( ads )
(b) OP L u n t r e a t e d
OPLLA
OPL LA( ads ) OP L L A
7 OP L L A a f t e r o i l
OPLLA
OPL LA af teroiadsorption
after l ads or pti on( ads ) ads orpt ion
OPLuntreated
OPLuntreated(des) desorb 2.0
6 OPLLA(des)
OPLLA desorb

dV/dlogD, (x 104 cm3/g)

OPLLA(des)
Pore volume,(cm3/g)

OPLLA af ter adsorption desorbs

5 1.5

4
1.0
3

2
0.5

0.0
0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Relative pressure,(P/Po) Pore diameter, (nm)

Fig. 3. Nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms and pore size distributions of OPLuntreated, OPLLA and OPLLA after oil adsorption.

3.2. Effect of hydrocarbon fraction in crude oil

120

To study the capability of OPLLA to adsorb petroleum hydrocar-

100 bons with various fractions, the oil that was exposed for 7 days to
Adsorption uptake, (mg g -1)

80
60
40
20
0 the lighter hydrocarbons of closed crude oil that adhered to the
closed
Fig. 4. Effect of hydrocarbon fraction of crude oil on adsorption onto OPLuntreated.
(pH 7, 2400 mg L1 oil, 40 g L1 OPLLA, 60 min, 303 K).
3.1.3. Textural properties identification
Nitrogen sorption measurements were conducted to further
characterize the pore parameter of the adsorbents. The obtained
nitrogen adsorption–desorption and pore size distribution are
shown in Fig. 3a and b, respectively. In accordance with the IUPAC
classification, all the adsorbents showed a typical type II adsorp-
tion–desorption isotherm, indicating the presence of mesopore
[21]. From the physical parameters obtained from the N2 adsorp-
tion isotherm, it is evident that the modification of OPLuntreated with
lauric acid increased the surface area and pore volume of the OPLLA.
Thus, possibly enhances the ability of the adsorbent for trapping oil
and also facilitate the pore distribution during adsorption. It is
noted, the OPLLA after oil adsorption has slightly decreased in sur-
face area and pore volume due to the oil pore-blocking effect.
The structural heterogeneity is generally characterized in terms
of pore size distribution [22]. The pore size distribution curves
showed a few peak detected, with the sharpest peak occurred at
pore diameter between 2–2.3 nm for all adsorbents. The average
pore sizes of OPLuntreated, OPLLA and OPLLA after oil adsorption were
3.87 nm, 4.93 nm and 5.86 nm, respectively.
In overall, the BET analysis shows no significant changes in the
surface area, pore volume and pore diameter for the OPLuntreated,
OPLLA and OPLLA after crude oil adsorption. Therefore, we sug-
gested that surface area gave less contribution for the crude oil
adsorption compared to the hydrophobicity as mentioned before
in Section 3.1.1.
air was used and compared with fresh crude oil obtained from the
plant station (closed oil). As can be seen from Fig. 4, the adsorption
uptake of closed oil is slightly higher than that of the exposed oil,
which indicates that the OPLLA adsorbed closed oil more easily than
exposed oil. This result may be explained by the GC–MS chromato-
grams shown in Fig. 5. After being exposed for 7 days, the lighter
hydrocarbons evaporated and the viscosity of the oil increased,
which resulted in the deceleration of the oil diffusion into the
internal surface of the OPLLA. A similar observation has been re-
ported for the removal of oil by walnut-shell media [23]. However,
exposed
surface of the OPLLA were expected to desorb more easily during
centrifugation than the heavy hydrocarbons in exposed crude oil
due to the weaker binding strength of crude oil to OPL [24]. Overall,
only minor differences were observed in both the adsorption up-
take and the removal percentage of the closed and exposed oil onto
the OPLLA. Therefore, the exposed oil was used for further investi-
gations to combine the advantages of applying the spilt-oil
conditions.
3.3. Effect of pretreatment of OPL
Preliminary study was conducted by using OPLuntreated as an
adsorbent to remove crude oil from aqueous mixture. However,
the OPLuntreated was found to show poor efficiency for crude oil re-
moval with the adsorption uptake of 92.32 ± 2.54 mg g1. This was
expected as raw agricultural waste usually exhibited low sorption
capacity due to the presence of many hydroxyl groups on its sur-
face. The presents of hydroxyl groups on the surface of OPLuntreated
is hypothesized to repel the crude oil molecules in the adsorption
medium, thus reduced the adsorption uptake [25].
The effectiveness of lauric acid in increasing the affinity of OPL
to adsorb oil was proven with the increase in the adsorption up-
take of OPL up to 369.60 ± 3.43 mg g1. A proposed mechanism
in Fig. 6 was used to explain the results. The introduction of the
lauric acid chain to the OPLuntreated, which is rich with hydroxyl
groups of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, promotes an esteri-
fication process to occur [26]. The substitution of hydroxyl groups
with the alkyl chain from the lauric acid has lead to the creation of
a non-polar layer on the OPLLA surface. The increase in the hydro-
 S.M. Sidik et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 203 (2012) 9–18 13

(a) (b)

Fig. 5. GC–MS chromatograms of (a) closed and (b) exposed crude oil.

Hydrophilic head Hydrophobic tail

O O O
O
OH OH O OH
OH OH O
O OH
O
OH
OH
O
OH OH O

OPLLA OPLLA
O

OPL
OH O OH

O
OH OH O
O
OH O
OH
OH
OH
OH O

surface
OH O
O OH

O
OH
O
adsolubilization of O OH

O
OH
O

modification oil droplet

untreated formation of reverse oil droplet attached to the

adsorbent micelle hydrophobic layer

Fig. 6. Proposed mechanism of oil adsorption onto OPLLA.

phobicity degree and the contact area of the OPLLA was believed to
372
enhance and provided more superior sites for higher oil adsorption
uptake.
370
Adsorption uptake, (mg g -1)

3.4. Effect of pH 368

The initial pH of the mixture is a vital process parameter for 366

controlling the adsorption because the aqueous chemistry and sur-
face binding sites of the adsorbent are dependent on the pH value 364
of the mixture [27]. Herein, the effect of initial pH of the oil mix-
ture on the adsorption process was studied in the range of 2–12 362
(Fig. 7). The adsorption uptake at the mixture pH 2 until 9 in-
360
creased dramatically from 360.63 ± 0.27 to 370.18 ± 0.63 mg g1.
However, in the pH range of 9–2, the adsorption uptake was almost
358
the same as in the range of 370.18 ± 0.63 to 370.65 ± 0.56 mg g1. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
This variation can be explained by the change in the amounts of pH
protons and hydroxyl ions present in the mixture.
Fig. 7. Effect of pH on adsorption of crude oil onto OPLLA. (2400 mg L1 exposed oil,
At low pH, huge amounts of protons were available in the mix-
40 g L1 OPLLA, 60 min, 303 K).
ture and they saturated the adsorbent sites. As a result, the cationic
properties of the adsorbent surface were increased [28]. This phe-
nomenon can greatly reduce the hydrophobic properties of the
adsorbent, thus severely affecting the performance of OPLLA for adjustment which resulted in the saponification process to occur
crude oil uptake. In addition, it was suggested that strong acidity [28]. When NaOH was added, the crude oil reacted or undergo
can cause coalescence and induce in the increase of crude oil drop- hydrolysis with the NaOH to produce glycerol and fatty acid salts,
let size [28]. These crude oil droplets in the hydrophobic layer are called soap. The resultant compound was more soluble in water
expected to experience severe stress and can be easily desorbed than in hexane. Therefore, when determining the final crude oil
from the adsorbent [26]. concentration of the treated sample, the crude oil concentration
The highest adsorption uptake was observed at high pH. How- was found to be lower at pH 9 and 12, since the crude oil was
ever, this did not correspond to the crude oil removal efficiency hydrolyzed in the aqueous mixture and was not being extracted
but the addition of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for alkaline pH into the hexane.
14 S.M. Sidik et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 203 (2012) 9–18

640 95 1400

90
540 1200
Adsorption uptake, (mg g -1)

85

Adsorption uptake, qe (mg g -1)

440 80 1000

Removal, (%)
75
340 800
70

240 65 600

60 Experimental
140 400
55 Langmuir
200 Freundlich
40 50
0 10 20 30 40 50 Temkin
Adsorbent dosage, (g L-1) 0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000
Fig. 8. Effect of adsorbent dosage on adsorption of oil onto OPLLA. (pH 7, Concentration, Ce (mg L-1)
2400 mg L1 exposed oil, 60 min, 303 K).
Fig. 9. Isotherm plots for crude oil adsorption onto OPLLA.

Thus, as shown in Fig. 7, the optimum pH for adsorption of

crude oil from aqueous mixture by OPLLA was at 7 and the adsorp- adsorption uptake of the crude oil due to the excess of the unsat-
tion uptake was 367.73 ± 0.34 mg g1. The condition seems to be urated adsorption sites.
advantageous for crude oil spill treatment since the pH of seawater In this study, three commonly used isotherms, the Langmuir
falls within the range of 6–9. Furthermore, this gives an advantage [30], the Freundlich [31] and the Temkin [32], were employed
to the treatment process whereby the final discharge after adsorp- and their non-linear form can be represented by the following
tion will have neutral pH. For this reason, no further adjustment of equations, respectively:
pH would be required after the adsorption before the effluent
qm K a C e
could be discharged. qe ¼ ð4Þ
1 þ K aCe

3.5. Effect of adsorbent dosage qe ¼ K F C 1=n ð5Þ

e

The effect of adsorbent dosage on the amount of crude oil re-
moved was studied by the application of dosage between 2 and
52 g L1. As can be seen in Fig. 8, the removal of crude oil was ob-
served to be dependent on the dosage of OPLLA. The rate of removal
percentage increased instantaneously with increasing adsorbent
dosage from 2 to 52 g L1, and then gradually decreased until the
equilibrium was achieved when the efficiency of crude oil removal
was 91.00 ± 1.31%. In contrast, the adsorption uptake increased
with decreasing OPLLA dosage, and the maximum sorption capacity
of 645.73 ± 6.65 mg g1 was attained when 2 g L1 of OPLLA was
used.
The increase in active sites led to a higher removal percentage
but lowered the crude oil uptake per unit of adsorbent. This is
due to the greater number of active sites available on the surface
of the OPLLA for crude oil to be adsorbed at a higher the dosage
of OPLLA [29], thus leading to a higher interaction between crude
oil particles and adsorbent. Meanwhile, the decrease in adsorption
uptake is basically due to the higher unsaturated adsorption sites
qe ¼ B lnðAC e Þ ð6Þ
1
where qe (mg g ) is the amount of oil adsorbed at the equilibrium
time, Ce (mg L1) is the equilibrium concentration of oil, KL (L mg1)
and qm (mg g1) are the Langmuir adsorption constant and the the-
oretical maximum adsorption capacity, respectively. The KF and n
are the Freundlich constants, which indicate the extent of the
adsorption and the degree of nonlinearity between the solution
concentration and the adsorption, respectively while A and B are
the Temkin constants. The isotherms fitting for Langmuir, Freund-
lich and Temkin of the adsorption of crude oil onto OPLLA were also
shown in Fig. 9.
The applicability of the studied experimental data in fitting the
equation isotherm models were determined by regression coeffi-
cient, R2 and error function. Marquadt’s percent standard deviation
was employed as the error function and is given as below:
0vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2 1
u " #
Bu 1 X ðqe;meas  qe;cal Þ C
p

during adsorption reaction [30]. MPSD ¼ 100  @t A ð7Þ

p  n i¼1 qe;meas
i

3.6. Equilibrium isotherms
Adsorption isotherm is important to describe the interactions
between the solute and the adsorbent. For this purpose, the effect
of the initial concentration of oil adsorbed onto OPLLA was studied
at different initial oil concentrations ranging from 400 to
6400 mg L1. As shown in Fig. 9, the adsorption uptake increased
with increasing initial concentration and reached its equilibrium
stage at the initial concentration up to 5600 mg L1. This result
may be due to the saturation of the active sites on the OPLLA. A
smaller number of hydrocarbon molecules at a lower concentra-
tion have sufficient available adsorption sites to be adsorbed on
the OPLLA. Therefore, oil at lower concentrations resulted in a lower
where p is the number of experiments and n is the number of
parameters of a model equation. The adsorption capacity obtained
from the experimental data and calculated from the modeled equa-
tion were denoted by qe and qe,calc, respectively. In the error estima-
tion, the lower the MPSD value indicates better fit of the isotherm
equations [26].
All of the coefficients and MPSD error values for these three iso-
therm models are listed in Table 1. The result shows a good fit of
the Langmuir isotherm to the experimental data with R2 value of
0.967, suggesting the formation of monolayer coverage of crude
oil onto the homogenous distribution of active sites on the OPLLA
surface [32]. However, the higher accuracy (R2 = 0.995) revealed
that the Freundlich isotherm model better described the adsorp-
 S.M. Sidik et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 203 (2012) 9–18 15

Table 1 droplets causing more interfacial area for the adsorption to happen
Coefficients and MPSD error values of the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin [36]. After 50 min, the adsorption rate was remained constant with
isotherms.
time, presumably due to the saturation of OPLLA surfaces with
Isotherm Parameters Values crude oil particles as well as the equilibrium between adsorption
Langmuir qm (mg g1) 1.95 and desorption process that occurred after the saturation [37].
KL (L mg1) 0.156 However, the experimental data were measured at 60 min to be
R2 0.967 sure that full equilibrium was attained. It is seen that nearly
MPSD 45.27
20 min is required for the adsorption to start at a very slow rate
Freundlich KF (mg g1) (L mg1)1/n 1.72 until the changes in adsorption uptake can be negligible relative
n 1.39
R2 0.995
to contact time needed. Therefore, under this effect of contact time,
MPSD 3.17 we chose 20 min as the optimum contact time to be used in further
Temkin A (1 g1) 0.007
study.
B 334 The study of adsorption kinetics is important in the treatment
R2 0.942 of aqueous effluent because it provides valuable information on
MPSD 21.42 the mechanism of the adsorption process. Two well-known models
of pseudo-first-order [38] and pseudo-second-order [39] were
used to find the possible rate-controlling steps involved in the
tion of crude oil onto OPLLA. In addition, the lowest MPSD value adsorption of crude oil, which can be expressed in the linear form
further confirmed the suitability of the Freundlich model in as the following equations, respectively:
describing the equilibrium data. These results demonstrated the k1 t
adsorption of crude oil onto OPLLA takes place through multilayer logðqe  qt Þ ¼ log qe  ð8Þ
2:303
adsorption process with the heterogeneous adsorption sites on
the solid’s surface [33]. The KF value was 1.72. In general, as the t 1 t
KF value increases, the adsorption capacity of the adsorbent for a ¼ þ ð9Þ
qt k2 q2e qe
given adsorbate also increases. According to literature, the adsorp-
tion is favorable when 1 < n < 10, and the higher the n value, the where qe (mg g1) and qt (mg g1) refer to the amount of oil ad-
stronger the adsorption intensity [34]. The value of n was greater sorbed at equilibrium and at any time, t (min), respectively, and
than unity (n = 1.39), which indicates that the oil is favorably ad- k1(g mg1 min1) and k2 (g mg1 min1) are the rate constant of
sorbed on OPLLA. In contrary, lower correlation coefficient of the the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order adsorption,
Temkin model was observed (R2 = 0.942), which indicated unsatis- respectively. The linear regression coefficient, R2 and parameters
factory fitting between the experimental data and isotherm of kinetics models were calculated and listed in Table 2. The results
equation. reveal a good fit in pseudo-second order model with the R2 values
higher than 0.997 and the approximation of experimental qe,exp
and theoretical q2e,calc values at the chosen temperature compared
3.7. Adsorption kinetics
to the pseudo-second order model. Clearly, the adsorption behav-
iors of crude oil on OPLLA do not follow the pseudo-first-order kinet-
Time of contact between adsorbate and adsorbent is of great
ics model but predominantly fit the pseudo-second-order kinetics
importance in adsorption, because it depends on the nature of
model.
the system used [35]. From Fig. 10, it was observed that the crude
At the present time, the model of Boyd [40] is widely used for
oil uptake was rapid for the first 10 min, and thereafter proceeded
studying the mechanism of adsorption. Boyd model determines
at a slower rate and finally attained saturation. The initially high
whether the main resistance to mass transfer is in the thin film
rate of crude oil uptake may be attributed to the existence of bare
(boundary layer) surrounding the adsorbent particle, or in the
surface of active sites on OPLLA. It was noticed that as the time was
resistance to diffusion inside the pores. This model is expressed as:
prolonged from 10 to 40 min, the adsorption uptake was increased.
This is probably due to the breakage of crude oil droplets which 6 X
1
1
F ¼1 expðn2 Bt Þ ð10Þ
were enhanced and thus reduced the diameter of the crude oil p2 n¼1 n2
where F is the fractional attainment of equilibrium, at different
700 times, t, and Bt is a function of F.
303 K qe
600 F¼ ð11Þ
qt
Adsorption uptake, (mg g -1)

500 The values of Bt for each fraction adsorbed can be calculated by

313 K the integration of Eq. (6) proposed by Reichenberg [41] in the fol-
400 lowing approximations:
for F values >0.85,
300
323 K
Bt ¼ 0:4977  lnð1  FÞ ð12Þ
200 for F values <0.85,
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2 ffi!2
100 pffiffiffiffi pF
Bt ¼ p p ð13Þ
3
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
The linearity test of Bt vs. time were used to distinguish be-
Contact time, (min)
tween the film- and particle-diffusion controlled adsorption. If
Fig. 10. Effect of contact times of adsorption of crude oil onto OPLLA at different the plot is a straight line passing through the origin, the adsorption
adsorption temperatures. (pH 7, 2400 mg L1 exposed oil, 2 g L1 OPLLA). rate was governed by the particle diffusion; otherwise it was gov-
16 S.M. Sidik et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 203 (2012) 9–18

Table 2
Coefficients of pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order adsorption kinetics models.

Temperature (K) qe.exp (mg g1) Pseudo-first order Pseudo-second order

2
k1  10 2
(g mg 1
min 1
) q1e.calc (mg g 1
) R k2  103 (g mg1 min1) q2e.calc (mg g1) R2
303 645.73 ± 6.65 10.02 488 0.986 0.900 667 0.998
313 467.58 ± 9.88 9.35 376 0.982 1.10 476 0.998
323 268.61 ± 6.53 8.36 200 0.975 1.70 278 0.997

5 0
(a) 0 (b) 10 20 30 40 50 60
4.5
4 -0.5

3.5
3 -1

log (1-F)
Bt

2.5
2 -1.5

1.5
1 303 K -2 303 K
0.5 313 K 313 K
323 K 323 K
0 -2.5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time, (min) Time, (min)

Fig. 11. Boyd plots for the adsorption of crude oil onto OPLLA at different adsorption temperatures.

Table 3
Thermodynamics parameters for the adsorption of oil onto OPLLA.

Temperature (K) qe (mg g1) DGo (kJ mol1) DHo (kJ mol1) DSo (kJ mol1 K1) Ea (kJ mol1)
303 1179 ± 12.92 0.804
313 706.83 ± 24.96 2.824 38.3 0.228 25.8
323 333.67 ± 17.00 5.372

Table 4
Comparison of oil adsorption capacity of various adsorbents.

Sorbent Adsorption capacity (g g1) pH Oil conc. (mg L1) Temperature (°C) Contact time (min) Ref.
Lauric acid treated oil palm leaves (OPLLA) 1.2 ± 0.12 7 5600 303 20 This study
Hydrophobized vermiculite with carnauba wax 1.1 ± 0.1 – 50 – 60 [5]
Hydrophobic aquaphyte – Salvinia sp. (HAS) 1.39 – 586 298 180 [6]
Hydrogel of chitosan based on polyacrylamide (HCP) 2.30 3 3000 298 200 [7]
Hydrophobic aerogel (HA) 2.80 – 1000 298 >180 [2]
Carbonized rice husks (CRH) 6.00 7.0 – 298 10 [8]
Black rice husk ash (BHRA) 6.22 – – 293 3 [9]
Oleic acid-grafted sawdust (OGSD) 6.00 5.19 8000 298 5 [10]
Recycled wool-based nonwoven material (RNWM) 11.50 – 80,000 – 10 [11]

erned by the film diffusion [42]. Fig. 11a shows the Boyd plot for tion of oil onto OPLLA was evaluated over the temperature range of
the crude oil adsorption on OPLLA. The plots for all the tempera- 303–323 K. As shown in Table 3, the adsorption uptake of the oil
tures are linear, but they do not pass the origin, indicating the increased with decreasing temperature, which indicates that the
film-diffusion-controlled mechanism. To reconfirm the above process was exothermic [44].
observation, log (1-F) vs. time was plotted at different tempera- The free energy change (DGo) was calculated by the following
tures and the straight lines deviating from the origin were obtained equation:
for all plots as shown in Fig. 11b. These observations further sup-
port the fact that the adsorption of crude oil onto OPLLA occurs DGO ¼ RT ln K C ð14Þ
via internal transport mechanism at all the temperatures studied where Kc is the equilibrium constant of the adsorption, which was
[43]. obtained from the following equation:
C e ðadsorbentÞ
3.8. Thermodynamics studies KC ¼ ð15Þ
C e ðsolutionÞ
Thermodynamics parameters were evaluated to confirm the where Ce (adsorbent) and Ce (mixture) are the equilibrium concen-
nature of the adsorption. The effect of temperature on the adsorp- trations of the oil molecules on the adsorbent and in mixture,
 S.M. Sidik et al. / Chemical Engineering Journal 203 (2012) 9–18
respectively. The values of the enthalpy change (DHo) and the en-
tropy change (DSo) could be determined from the van’t Hoff
equation:
DSO DH O
ln K C ¼  ð16Þ
R RT
The values of these thermodynamics parameters determined at
three different temperatures are listed in Table 3. The increase in
the DGo values with increasing temperature indicates a decrease
in the feasibility and spontaneity of the adsorption at higher tem-
peratures [45]. The negative DHo value suggests that the crude oil
adsorption may represent an exothermic process [42]. In general,
the magnitude of the enthalpy is about 20–40 kJ mol1 for physi-
sorption and 80–400 kJ mol1 for chemisorption [46]. Therefore,
this adsorption of crude oil onto OPLLA may classify as physisorp-
tion since its absolute magnitude of enthalpy is 38.3 kJ mol1,
which is in the physisorption range. The negative value of DSo sug-
gests that there is a decrease in randomness at the solid–mixture
interface during the adsorption of crude oil from water due to
the highly ordered crude oil molecules in the hydrophobic layer
of OPLLA at adsorption equilibrium [47].
The activation energy, Ea, is defined as the minimum kinetics
energy needed by the sorbate molecules to react with the active
sites available on the surface of the adsorbent [48]. The value of
Ea can be obtained by the Arrhenius equation by calculating the
slope of the plot of ln k2 vs. 1/T:
 
Ea 1
ln k2 ¼ ln A 
R T
where R (8.314 J mol1 K1) is the gas constant. The slope of the plot
of ln k2 vs. 1/T gives a value of the activation energy (Ea) of
25.8 kJ mol1 (Table 3). This value is showing that the presence of
low energy barrier to initiate the reaction and implied that the
adsorption of crude oil onto OPLLA is a physical adsorption. The va-
lue is consistent with the fact that the magnitude of the activation
energy for physical adsorption is usually between 5 and 40 kJ mol1
[49]. These results were also consistent with the value of enthalpy
in Table 3, which indicates the crude oil adsorption on OPLLA was
took place via physical adsorption.
3.9. Comparison of oil adsorption capacity of OPLLA with various
adsorbents
Table 4 lists the comparison of maximum adsorption capacity of
crude oil on various adsorbents. It was observed that OPLLA is com-
parable to that of hydrophobized vermiculite with carnauba wax
[5] and hydrophobic aquaphyte (HAS) [6] but its adsorption capac-
ity was slightly lower than hydrogel of chitosan based on polyacryl-
amide (HCP) [7] and hydrophobic aerogel (HA) [2]. Carbonized rice
husks (CRH) [8], black rice husk ash (BHRA) [9] and oleic acid-
grafted sawdust (OGSD) [10] gave five times higher adsorption
capacity compared to OPLLA and recycle wool non-woven material
(RWNM) [11] posses the highest adsorption capacity. Generally, it
could be dictated that the hydrophobicity and surface area play
an important role in the enhancement of oil sorption. Modifications
of the adsorbents by acrylamide (HCP), trimethylsilyl (HA) and fatty
acid groups (OGSD) enhanced their hydrophobicity, thus allow
more oil to be attracted to their surface. The hydrophobicity could
be also improved by pyrolysis, which provides moisture and vola-
tile components on the surface of the adsorbent (CRH and BHRA).
On the other hand, higher surface area posses by certain adsorbents
either by their natural structure (HAS) or modification (RWNM)
were also responsible for increasing the capability of trapping oil.
The pyrolysis on the preparation of RWNM resulted in fiber split-
ting and fibrillation for enhancement of the specific surface area.
17
4. Conclusions
In conclusion, OPLLA shows the potential to be a crude-oil adsor-
bent in oily water. The advantage of using OPL as an adsorbent in
this study is that its economical and solving environmental prob-
lems due to the abundance of OPL in South East region, especially
Malaysia and Indonesia. The successful impregnation of lauric acid
into OPL was supported by all the analysis studied. Pretreatment of
the raw OPL by lauric acid was effectively enhanced its surface
hydrophobicity, thus increased the adsorption capacity. FTIR anal-
ysis, BET analysis and FE-SEM micrographs have elucidated the sig-
nificant uptake of crude oil from the water onto OPLLA. The
adsorption of crude oil onto OPLLA exhibits pseudo-second-order
kinetics, and the adsorption was controlled by film-diffusion and
governed by the internal transport mechanism. All of the experi-
mental data fit well with the Freundlich model. The thermodynam-
ics studies presented here prove the feasibility, spontaneity and
exothermic nature of the adsorption, which is controlled by a phys-
isorption process.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledged the financial support by the Re-
search Grant from the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia
(Grant. No. 78326) and the award of National Science Fellowship
(Siti Munirah Sidik). We are also thankful to the Hitachi Scholar-
ship Foundation and Prof. Goto Masahiro for their supports and
ð17Þ advices.
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